Where Is The Classroom Going?

Advanced Teaching Technologies: Brave New World is an article from the 12/28/2006 issue of Campus Technology that outlines the state of two developing technologies expected to impact the future of education. The new teleconferencing products - I'm sorry, I mean "next-generation telepresence solutions" - are very cool. These technologies are permitting the subtleties of human interaction to enter into teleconferences, making the experience barely distinguishable from a face-to-face meeting. However, it is doubtful that many of these systems will find their way into educational institutions while the pricetags run from $250,000 - $425,000 with monthly costs as high as $18,000 per room.

The other half of this "Brave New World" of teaching technology is prophesied to be the use of multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs). It's "The Sims Go To College" but only more so, I guess. The crux of the idea is that learners (especially today's) are predisposed to effectively use a 3-D virtual avatar to fulfill a constructivist pedagogy. That is to say that students can explore at their own pace, building their own learning experience in their own way. Is this really the way of learning in the new millennium? Or is it dumbing down education because kids won't pay attention to anything if it isn't a game?

There are several MUVEs introduced, some developed with NSF grants. Whyville is targeted at younger kids learning (virtual) social skills. Quest Atlantis has 9-12 year olds role-playing through units along a storyline. The River City Project addresses national education standards for science, technology and the "21st century" and a varying content standards for grades 5-12. The Harvard-heavy development team has created an American town plagued with illnesses in 1878. From their 21st century understanding of scientific process, students interact with a local reporter to solve the health crises. How much structure is needed to qualify as a learning tool? If you're thinking, "What's next? Universities in Second Life?" - you're too late.

RIAA v. College Students

The March 23, 2007 Associated Press story, RIAA: Students Settling Piracy Claims, describes the latest front in the digital music wars. Whether one calls it "music sharing" or "piracy", regardless of philosophical and ethical positions, this issue is one of the banes of higher ed IT departments. At colleges and universities, the IT departments have additional responsibilities because they serve as an Internet Service Provider - even more so when that institution provides residential facilities.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has conducted an extremely aggressive legal campaign against ordinary individuals that has fostered much more animosity and ill-will than sympathy or fear. The RIAA has served a couple of rounds of pre-litigation notifications in the name of John Does at the colleges and universities based on IP address, "many" are accusations of copyright infringement (and what were the others?) The RIAA then attempts to use the lawsuits to discover the names of the students. These educational institutions find themselves in a difficult legal and policy position, between the copyright infringement law and protecting the rights and privacies of students.

The RIAA has taken an interesting new approach, offering deals for those who are willing to engage them. This article references a letter to an individual Ohio University student, valuing her 787 counts of infringements at $590,000. However, the RIAA is making offers through schools' attorneys of $3,000 to $5,000. How are we to understand the discrepancy in value for this offense? What makes a plaintiff eager to settle a lawsuit for less than 1% of claimed damages? Certainly one of the motivating factors has to be the difficulty in identifying and prosecuting defendants. To that end, the RIAA is offering to settle "P2P" suits online. At the time of the writing 116 students had settled. Stay tuned to see how these institutions will respond to this strategy.